Chapter 133 – Side Story: Lucia (1)
(1)
Guilt.
It’s like a very light leash.
If you live with it for a long time, you forget it’s there, but at some point, you feel like your neck is getting tight, and when you turn around, you see the rope being pulled taut, and soon you realize that you can’t escape it.
The person who notices the leash is forced to reflect on the mistakes he or she has made at that moment, feels a sinking heart, and reminds himself that he cannot escape this place.
Lucia felt that fact in a painful way.
When Mason received her own letter, which she had cherished all this time, she realized how broken the world she had built on her trust and love for Isabella had been. 〉
From the moment of her awakening, she realized what she had done. She committed sins that no one could forgive, acts that were tantamount to betraying humanity.
Together with Isabella, she ruined Sianna’s already mentally unstable mental state.
Mason took advantage of her unstable mental state to increase her dependency and manipulated her by exploiting her obsession with him.
Mason mixed her body with hers. It was her biological sister. She and her older sister, who took on the burden of raising her in place of her parents who passed away at a young age-
For a moment, a feeling of nausea and vomiting arose in her stomach, but she managed to hold it in and ran out.
“Hu-, ha… After-“
Inhale briefly, exhale long. As she repeated it in her head and took a deep breath of the hot summer night air, her stomach calmed down a little.
She turned to put her hand on the doorknob to go back into the house, but then stopped, raised her head and looked at her house.
From her childhood she was born and raised. It was a house filled with memories of her parents and her older sister.
What did I do here?
What did you do to her sister under the pretext of washing her body?
She no longer felt comfortable and welcome in her home. She couldn’t easily turn her eyes to a certain corner of the house.
The table where she once shared meals with her family? The room where I chatted with my sister until dawn without her parents knowing?
She couldn’t look back anywhere without reminding herself of what she and her sister had done.
But soon Lucia shook her head vigorously.
No. What you said was wrong.
Not me and my sister, but me to my sister.
I did it.
After that day, Lucia could not move her feet toward Isabella’s mansion for over a month.
Grace is dead.
Isabella, who was said to have been taken away, returned shortly afterward.
Becky, who came to the front of the house not long ago, made eye contact with her as she looked down through the window. She trembled and ran back the way she came. His face was full of bruises and scars, as if he had been hit by someone.
A few days ago, Jennifer came to visit and told her everything that happened after Grace went to Isabella’s mansion. And also the news that Sianna and Mason are currently in the mansion.
She insisted that she would take care of Mason and Sianna right away, but Jennifer’s cold sneer and the conditions she put forward stiffened her tongue.
-Really? The young lady said that she would let the whole village know what was the relationship between her and Mason and what they did to each other. Is that okay with you?
Lucia could not guess where her fear should come from. She fears that she will have to live her life being criticized by the villagers, or that Jennifer is also involved with her Isabella.
However, the fact that she feels afraid of her threats means that even in this situation, she cannot let go of her concerns about her own safety.
She felt a deep disgust with herself.
As she trembled between her disgust and fear, Jennifer whispered in her ear.
-The lady will be waiting for you at her mansion.
He told her to come when her heart was ready. With those words, she left without looking back.
“…”
Lucia, who was staring at the floor in front of the door, soon reached out her hand and grabbed the doorknob, opening the door strongly.
She was going to the mansion tomorrow.
“You really came.”
When she arrived at her mansion, it was a snickering Jennifer who opened her front door. Lucia, who secretly wanted to meet Germain and express her sad feelings, could not hide her wrinkled expression.
“… “What about Uncle Germaine?”
“You quit. She said she couldn’t hold out any longer, so she packed her bags and left that day. “Where has she gone?”
Jennifer responded by shrugging her shoulders as if she was not interested at all, and soon began leading her somewhere.
“Where are you going? “Aren’t you going to the office?”
At her question, Jennifer stopped in her tracks and sighed. Just as I was about to cry at her actions, Jennifer glanced at her and opened her mouth.
“… “The lady is not in the office these days.”
“Aren’t you in the office? Then where-“
“Hey.”
What cut off her question was a cold, informal conversation. Just as Lucia was about to sense her confusion about what she had just heard, Jennifer glared at her.
“If you follow me, I will follow you. Why are you saying so much?”
“… “What?”
“Why, did you think I couldn’t speak to you informally? “Stay still while I show you some courtesy.”
Blood flow rushes to Lucia’s head.
“… “What did you just say?”
“What are you doing now? “Can’t you understand the situation yet?”
Jennifer came over, and she jabbed her shoulder hard with her finger. It was not pleasant to be treated this way by her brother, whom she once knew from her village.
Especially when she is in a state of confusion like now.
“Now everything has changed. Do you think this mansion is still the same as before?”
Her gray eyes sparkle strangely. Lucia knew very well what those eyes were.
“Now everything in this place is run by her lady and only for her. It’s not just this mansion. From now on, this whole village will be like that.”
It’s the feeling of superiority that comes from knowing very well that the other person is below you.
“But who was the first to run away from this mansion on his own and betray the young lady?”
In the past, when she looked into her mirror.
“It’s you. So you are nothing now.”
It was the look in his eyes that met him every time.
“Don’t go against my wishes.”
“…”
Her provocation made her extremely vulnerable in the midst of her already driven and frustrating situation. Just as Lucia’s trembling right hand was about to rise-
“You two, please stop there.”
It was a soft, calm voice.
She turned her head at the sound of a voice she had never heard before and soon forgot what she was trying to do.
There was the most beautiful person she had ever seen with her own eyes.
Rich, gray hair with a shine close to silver, eyes that look like the greenery of the forest, and long, thick eyelashes on top of them.
Straight nose, pink cheeks. Lips are red with a natural gloss.
Since it was a face created by God, it was a look that was worthy of comparison.
However, these stereotypical descriptions could not express the complete picture. She was lost for a moment, looking for words to express herself while looking at the woman, and soon she was able to find them.
Her arms and legs moving naturally every time she walks, the hem of her white clothes fluttering softly, and her neat hair gently fluttering.
The small sound made by the naturally shaking hips, the hem of clothes brushing against each other, and the small rustle of sandals rubbing against the carpet, exposing the pure white bare insteps that are rarely seen in this area.
And the unconcealable nobility that naturally emanated from all of her actions made her beauty shine.
“Ah. I’m sorry, saint. Were we too loud?”
A saint?
Lucia looked at the ash-haired woman with a dumbfounded expression at the way Jennifer called her.
What kind of bullshit is that?
At Jennifer’s words, she gently stretched out her hand to cover her mouth and smiled softly.
“No. Rather, it’s because I just barely fell asleep, and it gets noisy when I wake up.”
She lifted her opposite hand and fanned her hand lightly.
A bead of sweat runs from her temple, down her cheek, and down her slim chin. The saintess, who had taken her eyes off Jennifer, smiled softly when her eyes met Lucia’s.
“It’s been a while.”
The moment you start to feel an ominous sense of déjà vu.
“Lucia.”
She bowed her head slightly in greeting, and Lucia felt dizzy.
“… Si, Siana?”
As she called her, struggling with her parched mouth. Siana was silent for a moment and then opened her mouth.
“Yes that’s right. How have you been?”
Siana’s voice was calm, and her gentle smile never left her face.
An unpleasant feeling of discomfort creeps up her skin.
The Sianna she saw did not look like that.
Like a badly abused animal, it was sharp, aggressive, and pushed to its mental limit.
So much so that not even a trace of the saint I heard about from Isabella can be found.
However, the current Sianna was more befitting of her once status as a saint.
The appearance is so neat and perfect that it gives you goosebumps, without a single thing out of place, and the elegance of each movement could be described as noble.
While she was trying to find her words, Sianna smiled and cupped her hands in both of hers. Lucia felt her goosebumps and tried to pull her hand away, but Sianna wouldn’t let her go.
“You’re finally here. Let’s go quickly.”
“Uh…, Where?”
“Where?”
Her smile turned into a bright laugh.
“Bella is waiting.”
Bella.
The Isabella Lucia knew hated being called by that nickname.
